TY - JOUR
T1 - MRI-related anxiety can induce slow BOLD oscillations coupled with cardiac oscillations
AU - Pfurtscheller, G.
AU - Schwerdtfeger, A. R.
AU - Rassler, B.
AU - Andrade, A.
AU - Schwarz, G.
N1 - Funding Information:
We like to thank Thomas Zussner, David Fink and Karl Koschutnig for support in data acquisition and Clemens Brunner for support in data processing. All University of Graz. The authors acknowledge the financial support by the University of Graz.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 International Federation of Clinical Neurophysiology
PY - 2021/9
Y1 - 2021/9
N2 - Objective: Although about 1–2% of MRI examinations must be aborted due to anxiety, there is little research on how MRI-related anxiety affects BOLD signals in resting states. Methods: We re-analyzed cardiac beat-to beat interval (RRI) and BOLD signals of 23 healthy fMRI participants in four resting states by calculation of phase-coupling in the 0.07–0.13 Hz band and determination of positive time delays (pTDs; RRI leading neural BOLD oscillations) and negative time delays (nTDs; RRI lagging behind vascular BOLD oscillations). State anxiety of each subject was assigned to either a low anxiety (LA) or a high anxiety (HA, with most participants exhibiting moderate anxiety symptoms) category based on the inside scanner assessed anxiety score. Results: Although anxiety strongly differed between HA and LA categories, no significant difference was found for nTDs. In contrast, pTDs indicating neural BOLD oscillations exhibited a significant cumulation in the high anxiety category. Conclusions: Findings may suggest that vascular BOLD oscillations related to slow cerebral blood circulation are of about similar intensity during low/no and elevated anxiety. In contrast, neural BOLD oscillations, which might be associated with a central rhythm generating mechanism (pacemaker-like activity), appear to be significantly intensified during elevated anxiety. Significance: The study provides evidence that fMRI-related anxiety can activate a central rhythm generating mechanism very likely located in the brain stem, associated with slow neural BOLD oscillation.
AB - Objective: Although about 1–2% of MRI examinations must be aborted due to anxiety, there is little research on how MRI-related anxiety affects BOLD signals in resting states. Methods: We re-analyzed cardiac beat-to beat interval (RRI) and BOLD signals of 23 healthy fMRI participants in four resting states by calculation of phase-coupling in the 0.07–0.13 Hz band and determination of positive time delays (pTDs; RRI leading neural BOLD oscillations) and negative time delays (nTDs; RRI lagging behind vascular BOLD oscillations). State anxiety of each subject was assigned to either a low anxiety (LA) or a high anxiety (HA, with most participants exhibiting moderate anxiety symptoms) category based on the inside scanner assessed anxiety score. Results: Although anxiety strongly differed between HA and LA categories, no significant difference was found for nTDs. In contrast, pTDs indicating neural BOLD oscillations exhibited a significant cumulation in the high anxiety category. Conclusions: Findings may suggest that vascular BOLD oscillations related to slow cerebral blood circulation are of about similar intensity during low/no and elevated anxiety. In contrast, neural BOLD oscillations, which might be associated with a central rhythm generating mechanism (pacemaker-like activity), appear to be significantly intensified during elevated anxiety. Significance: The study provides evidence that fMRI-related anxiety can activate a central rhythm generating mechanism very likely located in the brain stem, associated with slow neural BOLD oscillation.
KW - Anxiety
KW - Cardiac-interval oscillations
KW - fMRI
KW - Pacemaker-like activity
KW - Slow BOLD oscillations
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85110277875&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.clinph.2021.05.021
DO - 10.1016/j.clinph.2021.05.021
M3 - Article
C2 - 34284243
AN - SCOPUS:85110277875
SN - 1388-2457
VL - 132
SP - 2083
EP - 2090
JO - Clinical Neurophysiology
JF - Clinical Neurophysiology
IS - 9
ER -